Sister of Kent State shooting victim plans archive to rival histories kept at university

Chuck Ayers/Kent State University ArchivesStudents lob a tear gas cannister back at Ohio National Guard troops on May 4, 1970, the date that four students were shot and killed and nine others wounded. KENT, Ohio -- Laurel Krause was 15 years old on May 4, 1970 -- the afternoon her older sister Allison was shot and killed by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University.

Laurel Krause said she's coming back to the Kent campus this year -- the 40th anniversary since the Vietnam War-era tragedy ended in the deaths of four students and injuries to nine others -- to try to set the record straight about what happened that spring day.

Allison KrauseShe calls her project The Kent State Truth Tribunal, an attempt to compile an online video oral history of the tragic events that day. She and others will be set up near the Kent campus the first weekend in May through the May 4 commemoration to gather testimonies.

"We're seeking the truth and we would like for anyone, everyone to share their personal narratives with us," Krause said by telephone from her home near Fort Bragg, Calif. "We're wishing to create harmony and healing, but we're also out to correct the historical record."

Krause contends that American history books still portray the shootings as a "standoff" between protesting students and the guardsmen, "as if the shootings could somehow be justified."

"But those histories are wrong about Kent State," she said. "The truth has never been revealed and our own father died not knowing what really happened."

The Krause family was among the victims' families that pursued court cases against the Ohio National Guard for the first decade after the shootings. No one was ever held responsible for the shootings or even of giving an order to fire into the crowd.

There are already two existing oral history projects about the Kent State events, one at the Kent Historical Society and a larger, ongoing compilation held on the 12th floor of the university's library.

Kent State Archivist Steve Paschen said he would welcome a new collection of oral histories gathered by Krause, but defended the existing online collection as an unbiased narrative.

"Here in archives, we're not trying to interpret what happened, we just collect it," he said. "We don't have a point of view.

"In a way, an oral history is not even entirely based on finding facts -- although facts are certainly in there -- as much as it is about recording the perceptions, recollections and feelings of participants and observers before, during and after an event. I think we're doing a pretty good job with that."

The Kent State archive includes nearly three entire floors of information surrounding May 4. The May 4 Oral History Project within that archive has audio interviews and transcripts from more than 100 people, including student protesters, guardsmen, university faculty and several past presidents, Kent residents and law enforcement officials.

Krause said the university archives are "good for what they are," but are limited because they are held by an institution. A news release accompanying the announcement of the Krause tribunal claims that it will "generate the only comprehensive historical record and live archive of the Kent State massacre."

Krause said she and other volunteers would take testimonies May 1-4 at the Franklin Square Deli Building, 110 S. Water St. in Kent. She urges participants to pre-register on the web site.

Meanwhile, the university has launched its own online "newsroom" to keep tabs on multiple events surrounding the May 4 commemoration, while the student-run May 4 Task Force, which plans most of the major events each year, also has an online listing.